Exercise is generally considered to be health promoting, but not all forms of exercise might be ideal for someone with bladder issues.
Last time, I talked about why jogging may not be so ideal for bladder health. This week I’d like to look at some options that I consider to be safe and beneficial.
When I first had interstitial cystitis (IC), I started looking at diet and lifestyle changes that might help me get better. Exercise is generally considered to be health promoting, so I decided to include it in my routine. I knew quite a few people who were jogging regularly and decided to give it a go myself, since it required no special equipment or gym membership.
However, each time I did go for a run I would get a massive flare of my IC symptoms, as well as the urge to run to the toilet.
I eventually abandoned jogging (mainly because I was chronically fatigued and couldn’t do much at all). I only recently came across an explanation as to why jogging may not be so great for the bladder and I thought I’d share it with you!
If you suffer from incontinence there is a chance that you have a prolapsed bladder. This is also known as a dropped bladder, cystocele or a bladder hernia.
This can (and should be) diagnosed by your doctor but there is also an easy way to check for it at home.
Yoga is a type of mental and physical exercise that has been used in traditional Indian medicine since ancient times.
In recent years it has become more and more popular as a form of exercise and relaxation technique in the Western world.
Its use as a therapeutic intervention to accompany other forms of medicine has also grown in the West.
Today I would like to take a look at how yoga can be used as a therapy for chronic urologic conditions such as interstitial cystitis and chronic UTIs and chronic illness in general.
Today I’d like to take a closer look at the role of hormones on bladder health. Hormones have been known for a while to play a role in lower urinary tract symptoms such as UTIs, interstitial cystitis and stress incontinence. Hormones may be the reason why women generally seem to be more prone to bladder problems than men and also why some symptoms may get worse at certain times of the month.
Kegel exercises are one of the main treatment options for urinary incontinence (specifically for ‘stress incontinence’). Kegels were first introduced by the American gynaecologist Arnold Kegel in 1948 and since then have been supported as being effective in several studies.
Overactive bladder (OAB) is not a condition as such but rather a group of urinary symptoms defined by a problem with bladder storage where the bladder muscle (detrusor) contracts too often or spontaneously and involuntarily. It often includes, and is therefore closely related to, incontinence.
There is a reported incidence of OAB ranging between 12-17% in Europe alone and a suggested 1 in 6 people is suffering from symptoms in the UK. The incidence of OAB increases with age but should not be accepted as a normal part of the ageing process.